The Remarkable Powers of Cayenne Pepper

A Natural Polycrest Remedy With a Wide Range of Fast-Acting Health Benefits

There are a few herbs known to promote health in such a wide variety of ways that they are often referred to as a "polycrest", meaning that a single herb has been shown to be helpful for numerous health conditions. 

Every herb has its range of special uses, some more than others. A polycrest tends to have a broader range of benefit than a medicinal herb with a more targeted effect.

At the same time, anyone's health can be diminished by toxic overload, lifestyle stresses, poor diet, high EMF exposure, etc., thus slowing down progress toward greater health. 

So, taking one of the several polycrest wonders of Nature, especially one as effective as Cayenne Pepper, can certainly help speed the restoration of health. 

Central to Cayenne and other hot pepper's designation as a universal polycrest remedy is the bioactive property of being Nature's most effective, immediate circulatory stimulant.

Capillary and lymph circulation are central to solving numerous health problems, given that the blood and lymph fluids help the bodydetox as they simultaneously deliver oxygen, nutrients, and immune system response powers where they are needed most.  

Other polycrests include Pine Needle and branch Tea, Hyssop, Ginger, Prickly Ash Bark, Hawthorn Berry, Gynostemma Leaf (Jiaogulan), and a few others. 

But if there was any one herb that I have observed to produce the greatest amount of benefit in the shortest amount of time, I would have to give that award to Cayenne Pepper (and other hot peppers).

Hot peppers combined with any of the above (along with a quality diet) are likely to accelerate a healing process all the more.

One Caution About Hot Peppers and Black Pepper

With that said, there is one caution to be aware of when it comes to hot peppers, and even more so with Black Pepper itself. Peppers, in general, are warming to the human constitution, and black pepper is both warming a drying.  

This means that an excess can increase inflammation and promote canker sores in the mouth. In mild to moderate amounts, these conditions can be improved, but in excess, true to any natural remedy, what it benefits at the lesser dose, it will aggravate at the excessively high dose.

I have learned this lesson the hard way!!  While it can knock out a cold or flu, or sore throat with one strong to medium dose, in repeated amounts it can aggravate the system.

Moderation is paramount.

The Remarkable Powers of Cayenne Pepper

Dr. John L. Christopher made cayenne pepper famous in America after it cured him of a list of health problems including an ulcer, hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure, and other issues.

He went on to prove its health-restoring benefits with hundreds of clients, including numerous heart-attack patients whose conditions reversed within seconds of a repeated dose of cayenne pepper.  

Cayenne is immensely beneficial for the cardiovascular system. This is partly due its niacin (B3) and capsaicin content triggering an acceleration to blood circulation.

Cayenne's rich nutrient profile, including key electrolytes potassium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus, relax and expand the entire vascular system, including the capillaries, while making it possible for the vascular system to regain the elasticity of youth. 

Blood pressure then naturally returns to normal (especially when concentrated sugars, the primary cause of high blood pressure, are eliminated from the diet altogether). 

 

Cayenne also improves digestive juice production and promotes the peristaltic motion of the intestines, thus improving the delivery of nutrients to every cell of the body, while catalyzing the removal of cellular waste and toxins.

By equalizing blood pressure and assisting in the breakdown of fats in the bloodstream (that impede circulation), cayenne produces natural warmth in your body from head, to fingers, to toes, thus improving cold tolerance.

 

Although counterintuitive, cayenne pepper has proven to resolve stomach and intestinal ulcers, as well as improve hemorrhoids.

Careful external use has shown to restore hair loss, and flush toxins and mucus buildup from the eyes, thus eliminating cataracts and improving eyesight.

The increased circulation and natural sweat-inducing heat from cayenne delivers oxygen throughout the body, eliminates toxins, and addresses pathogens of all kinds, making cayenne one of Nature's most effective (and most rapid) solutions for colds, flus, and parasites.

There are many wonders within the herbal kingdom, and several that that are worthy of being called a "virtual cure-all", but none that produce their many benefits in such a short span of time.

The potent circulatory stimulus from cayenne pepper is its most vital benefit, and is central to all of its other healing powers. The following includes an enumeration of cayenne's healing properties. 

Medicinal Properties of Cayenne Pepper

Medicinal properties assigned to cayenne in herbal and medical literature identify its action in the body as follows:

Stimulant: an action that quickens and enlivens the physiological activities of the body – circulation, perspiration, detoxification, heart action, nerve activity, lymph drainage, cellular repair, etc.

Tonic: Promotes a broad upgrading action that increases the constitutional strength and enlivens a specific organ or the whole body.

 

Nutritive: Cayenne is a good source of niacin (B3), quercetin (4 types), luteolin, rutin, vitamin C, E, and provitamin A.

 

The most common minerals found in peppers are potassium (K), phosphorus (P), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), boron (B), copper (Cu), and selenium (Se). 

Cardiovascular Protection: The calcium, potassium, and magnesium in Cayenne Pepper serve as an instant electrolyte infusion able to stop a heart attack or other heart rhythm issues within seconds.

Blood Pressure: Cayenne helps regulate the constriction and dilation of the vascular system.

 

Anticlotting: Inhibits excessive clotting while rapidly stopping internal and external bleeding. 

Antiobesity and Weight Control: Capsaicin (a compound in hot peppers that makes them taste hot) has shown properties as an antiobesity substance through several mechanisms. Tremblay, Arguin, and Panahi (2016) reported that capsaicinoids:

• accelerate the impact of low-calorie diets on body weight loss

• accelerate the breakdown of fats to release fatty acids)

• increase satiety or sensation of fullness

• and reduce the desire for simple carb and high fat meals

"These effects may postpone the occurrence of resistance to lose fat during a weight loss program [known as a famine response] and facilitate the maintenance of body weight in a postobese state [after weight loss].

Evidence also highlights the plausibility of an indirect effect of capsaicin on energy balance via its analgesic effects, which may improve sleep and ultimately facilitate the regulation of energy balance."

Anodyne: Relieves and soothes pain.

Alterative: Alters and upgrades the metabolic activity in the body so that organs and tissues can better address their normal range of functions like detoxification, nutrient delivery, digestion, elimination, circulation, nerve response, hormone regulation, brain function, etc.

Sialagogue: Promotes the secretion of saliva with its many digestive enzymes.

Rubefacient: When applied to the skin will cause a gentle and localized increase in surface blood flow (vasodilation).

Carminative: The main action is to soothe and settle the gut wall by increasing peristalsis, thereby relieving cramping and expelling gas.

Digestive: Aids or promotes the digestive juices – saliva, stomach juices, pancreatic enzymes, etc.

Anti-inflammatory: Inflammation is the body’s natural method of addressing a toxin or a pathogen. It is a normal immune response.

A natural anti-inflammatory herb does not inhibit this natural and necessary response (in the suppressive way a pharmaceutical would act). Instead it will support and encourage the biochemical processes that remove the offending toxin or pathogen, and accelerate a repair mechanism.

By removing the target of the inflammation and speeding repair, the protective immune response resulting in inflammation is no longer required.

Cayenne has excellent anti-inflammatory properties, especially from the stem/pericarp of the pepper (the small stem at the top of the pepper) (Chen and Kang, 2013)

Antioxidant: Inhibits potentially damaging oxidizing agents such as heavy metals and chemical toxins.

Antispasmodic: Soothes muscle spasms, as in a cough reflex, or muscle cramp, or muscle restlessness.

Anti-catarrhal: Helps the body to thin and remove excess mucous from the body, particularly in the ear, nose, throat, and sinuses.

Antimicrobial (including the following):

Anti-parasitic: Destroys or expels worms. The term is synonymous with vermifuge and anthelmintic.

Antifungal: Prevents fungal growth (including candida and 15 other strains)

Antibacterial: Counters bacterial presence

Antiviral: Traditionally this term is associated with colds, flus, herpes, AIDS, etc. Yet today we now understand that what was once referenced as a virus was merely the exosome cleanup crew resulting from damage to cells caused by toxins.

A cold or flu is primarily a response by the body to clear excessive toxic debris from the system, a process which Cayenne Pepper excels at.

A metadata study published in Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety documented 13 noteworthy benefits derived from hot peppers including: 

1. Anticancer agent
2. Antiobesity agent
3. Cardiovascular effect (heart & circulatory system)
4. Dermatological potential (skin healing and repair)
5. Gastrointestinal properties
6. Overweight control (maintaining reduced weight after low calorie diets)
7. Pain relief
8. Neuropathic pain (pain, numbness, or weakness in the extremities).
9. Neurogenic inflammation (related to the nervous system in general)
10. Urinary disorders
11. Neurogenic bladder
12. Renal failure (kidneys)
13. Vulvar vestibulitis (burning or cutting pain in the genitals)

Another metadata study in 2020 involving scientists from 8 countries and 10 research centers around the world identified Cayenne's rich nutrient profile and numerous health benefits summarized here:

Capsicum fruits have been used as food additives in the treatment of toothache, parasitic infections, coughs, wound healing, sore throat, and rheumatism. Moreover, it possesses antimicrobial, antiseptic, anticancer, counterirritant, appetite stimulator, antioxidant, and immunomodulator activities. Capsaicin and Capsicum creams are accessible in numerous ways and have been utilized in HIV-linked neuropathy and intractable pain.

The same study identified over 100 nutritional compounds in various capsicum species including capsaicinoids, carotenoids, flavonoids, vitamins, and minerals, then identified specific health benefits from their moderate use in the following areas:

1. Antimicrobial Properties: Counters bacteria, herpes, fungus, parasites and their larvae. 

2. Antioxidant Properties: Contains "an extensive range of secondary metabolites with renowned antioxidant properties—for example, carotenoids; capsaicinoids; and phenolic compounds, predominantly flavonoids, quercetin, and luteolin" particularly helpful in treating cardiovascular disease.

3. Anti-Inflammatory Properties: The hot peppers were found to be especially helpful in correcting arteriosclerosis, heart disease, arthritic symptoms, and pain from inflammation.

4. Cardiovascular Effects: Compounds in the peppers serve as anticoagulants, thus reducing the chances of stroke. The peppers support recovery from diabetes and high blood pressure, lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels naturally, contain lecithin which helps to emulsify fats, and reduce arthritic symptoms. 

5. Anti-Obesity Effect: The non-pungent compound capsiate from sweet peppers (in paprika), were found to "stimulate the transient potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) receptor, which in turn raises the lipolysis of fat tissues through the sympathetic nervous system and thermogenesis".

6. Immune System Modulation of Tumor Growth: The direct injection of capsaicin into a preexisting tumor was shown to result in "retarded progression of the injected tumor regardless of whether the tumor is at its early or late stage. Furthermore, it leads to significant inhibition of growth of other, uninjected tumors in the same animal. Capsaicin-elicited immunity is shown to be T cell-mediated and tumor-specific. These results reflect the immunological potency of a neurological ligand in modulating immune response against an established tumor."

7. Memory Enhancing Activity: Green chili is a favorable memory enhancer. The fundamental mode of action of green chili seems reliant on (1) the enhancement of memory following external application, (2) improved memory recall, and (3) the improved scavenging of radicals.

I personally attribute the vast number of health benefits associated with hot peppers to their ability to rapidly increase blood flow through the capillaries so as to reach every cell of the body with oxygen and nutrients, and thereby catalyze the removal of toxins and waste from the cells and organs.  

There is no more important time than today to pay attention to natural ways to boost immune response powers and detox the body of the poisons inflicted on the populace by our own medical profession.

 

Cayenne Pepper tops my list of natural remedies that are readily available, inexpensive, and which produce results in a rapid fashion, sometimes within seconds.  

Many blessings of health and success,
Enjoy the many gifts from Nature!